HUMILITY WANTED | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 23.

HUMILITY WANTED.

SIMULATED Christianity is often so nearly like the genuine that it cannot be detected upon a short acquaintance, and yet there is generally something about it that arouses a suspicion that it is not just what it should be. A meek and quiet spirit must characterize every true Christian, and it matters not how loud the profession nor how great the manifestation of feeling, if humility dwells not in the heart, "this man's religion is vain."

In view of the maximum of profession, and the minimum of possession, in religious circles to-day, the following truths incidentally expressed in a recent number of the New York Christian Advocate are to the point. Speaking of "De Imitatione Christi," a book written nearly five hundred years ago, probably by Thomas à Kempis, the Advocate says:—

"The restless activity of this age needs the calmness of the "Imitatione," and its call to stop and think and look within. The superficial views prevalent as to sin, and the easy-going sort of piety which flourishes, nowadays, need the earnest and penetrating teachings of this little book. And for the cant, narrowness, and pharisaic self-righteousness of much of the present so-called holiness literature—especially that circulated among Methodists—there needs to be substituted the sincerity, freshness, humility, and depth of spiritual insight, which constitute some of the chief charms of the "Imitatione," and which have attracted to it devout minds of all communions."